TL;DR

This project leverages LLM-based multi-agent systems to identify how networks of international cooperation enable authoritarian practices that transcend state borders, e.g.:

Problems with existing knowledge/methods

Substantive limitations

  • Research on authoritarianism tends to focus on state actors and regime type
  • Overlooks the role of other actors, e.g.: PR firms, technology companies, IOs
  • ➡️ Authoritarian practices require networks of international cooperation to succeed, but we don’t know how these networks of international cooperation work

Methodological limitations

  • Related work relies on manual data collection and structured data
  • Existing approaches can’t capture interactions between different actors for empirical analysis

RQs

  • RQ1: What types of actors are involved in enabling transnational authoritarian practices?
  • RQ2: Through what mechanisms do different types of actors enable transnational authoritarian practices?
  • RQ3: What do these patterns of cooperation reveal about how authoritarian practices are executed internationally?

Approach

Compile corpus of transnational authoritarian practices1

  • Archives that inform existing datasets
  • Media coverage via Google Search/LexisNexis/social media APIs
  • UNGDC/UNSC corpora
  • Legal documents
  • Financial records
  • Relevant academic literature

Construct a typology of transnational authoritarian practices

  • Synthetic literature review of ⬆️ corpus
  • Use findings to inform a typology of actors involved, target population/scope, methods, (intended) outcomes
  • Select (historical) cases to guide and contextualize simulations of interactions between actor types across contexts

Develop LLM-MAS; apply to case studies

  • Model interactions among identified actors
  • Make sure these interactions are realistic
  • Uncover hidden patterns of (non-)cooperation that can help us understand processes of international cooperation in authoritarian practices

Contributions

  • Shifts the broader conversation on authoritarianism away from states/systems to practices, while providing a roadmap for analyzing the global scale/scope of said practices
  • Theory: How different actor types engage in networks of international cooperation that enable authoritarian practices
  • Data: Actor-level data on international cooperation in authoritarian practices
  • Method: LLM-MAS as a way to analyze interactions between different types of actors involved in human rights practices/conflict processes/etc.

Thank you!

a.w.koh@bham.ac.uk

https://allisonkoh.github.io/

🦋 @allisonwkoh

Appendix

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References

Dukalskis, Alexander. 2021. Making the World Safe for Dictatorship. Oxford University Press.